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Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Here Comes Francis!

"How can it be that it is not news when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points”?

Pope Francis

How indeed? On December 1, 2013, I tweeted the following message to the pope:

"@Pontifex: Your Holiness, you are driving the right wing in America nuts. Thank you."

Sorry, but I just couldn't help myself. I'll be a bit more measured in my remarks this afternoon. It is indeed a screaming irony that both sides of the political conversation expect to gain points from the visit of the pontiff to the United States (the first of his long life). In this week's issue of Rolling Stone, a good point was made when it said that Pope Francis in many ways is to the left of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. How's that for irony?

But if progressives were expecting his holiness to embrace same-sex marriage and abortion, they ought not to hold their breath.

But while it is true that some of this incredible man's philosophy makes liberals somewhat uncomfortable, he has a habit of driving the right wing apoplectic - always a fun thing to behold. There is a serious conflict between the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth and the modern conservative movement, and Francis is not adverse to holding up a mirror to confront all of us with our hypocrisies.

Blessed are the poor in spirit,for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.Blessed are those who mourn,for they shall be comforted.Blessed are the meek,for they shall inherit the earth.Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,for they shall be filled.Blessed are the merciful,for they shall obtain mercy.Blessed are the pure in heart,for they shall see God.Blessed are the peacemakers,for they shall be called sons of God.Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake,for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.Jesus ChristThe Sermon on the MountFrom the Gospel According To Matthew

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Dick Gregory once theorized that if Christ came back today the American right wing would tie him to a giant peace sign and roll Him off of a cliff. There is a serious conflict between the teachings of Christianity and the modern right wing movement. If you are a devout "Christian" and are unable to see this eyesore of a conflict, my suggestion to you would be - for the time being at least - don't focus so much on the Old Testament and concentrate more on the New. That'll learn ya! FULL DISCLOSURE: I'm not implying that those of us who lean leftward are theologically pure; there's always room for improvement.

Tomorrow the pope will be addressing a joint session of congress. These are indeed interesting times to be alive.Tom DeganGoshen, NY

Yogi Berra 1925-2015

AFTERTHOUGHT:"It ain't over till it's over."It's over. I was never a sports fan. It is my belief that people (American men in particular) waste so much of their precious lives obsessing over the topic of sports. Still, over half a century after his prime, it was hard not to notice - and love - Yogi Berra. I once read a book that was a compilation of Zen quotations. There was a whole chapter devoted to Yogi's famous "malapropisms". This is a man who will be sorely missed."When you arrive at a fork in the road, take it."What was not to love?

The region has the capacity to quickly build housing for the refugees. The giant construction companies that have built the gleaming towers of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Riyadh should be contracted to create shelters for the influx. Saudi Arabia has plenty of expertise at managing large numbers of arrivals: It receives an annual surge of millions of Hajj pilgrims to Mecca. There’s no reason all this knowhow can’t be put to humanitarian use.

Saudi Arabia’s offer to build 200 mosques in Germany for the thousands of Syrian refugees that had made their way to the country has been branded “cynical” by German politicians.

The offer was made in response to the large numbers of refugees fleeing the crisis in the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia reportedly suggesting to build one mosque for every 100 asylum seekers crossing into Germany.

The implication seems to be that the progressive agenda is aligned with the teachings of the New Testament. Do you think that is the case? I don't, and I have studied it and followed Jesus Christ for 30 years. Nor do I believe He is aligned with any "right wing" agenda. That's not my point.

And, have YOU actually read it? The reason I ask is, if you read just a few verses past your Sermon on the Mount quote from Matthew 5, you would come to this:

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished."

Jesus' reference to "the Law or the Prophets" refers precisely to the Old Testament. So, there is actually harmony in the progressive revelation from OT to NT.

My goal is not to scoff or poke fun - rather to encourage you to really dig into it. I think you'd find that Jesus is apolitical and that He would have plenty to say to people of all political stripes (the group called human beings). I would be careful about trying to wield Him as a political hammer. He is FAR more than that.

Actually both left and right wing would jail..and if he didn't learn his lesson...would then kill Jesus. The right wing from the standpoint that he preaches turn-the-other cheek. Its obvious many right wing people don't practice what they supposedly worship on Sunday...so I'll leave that one for another day. The left wing would certainly crucify him for "not paying his fair share". Jesus advocated one master--not two in servitude. Whoops...there goes worship of government as your master. Secondly the law was god's law and not man's law--strike 2 for worshipping big government. Third Jesus proclaimed to simply give which often get's him branded as a socialist....but not so fast. Jesus never proclaimed to TAKE first in order to give secondarily. Well....there goes forced wealth redistribution and only permits voluntary action. Which brings up another topic and notice that Jesus never FORCED anyone to do anything. Thus conservatives with their conscription draft...well...that's out. But also so would go ANY penal action...such as Obamacare. Jesus never advocated "trumpeting" your giving but rather to give in secret. Oh well...that tosses every politician because without trumpeting the alleged giving, they would never get elected. Lastly people point to Roman's as an example of being under servitude to government and also the passage of "render unto Cesar." Let's look at both and first Roman's. If servitude was the lot....then why was Paul in jail for preaching the teachings of Jesus for clearly he knew he was going against Roman authority? Now on the render passage. Ceasar was a dictator. Render unto the dictator. But are we a dictatorship, or do you live in a free society? Can't have it both ways. Not a day goes by where someone from the left points to some teaching of Jesus to "stick it in the face". Ironic. Most have never actually read the 4 gospels. Now to a certain extent its understandable because the right guys tossed bible passage after bible passage at the left for years. It's hilarious that a "war on Jesus" is going on...just as Jesus predicted. The passage about being hated for following the teachings of Jesus would earn your reward in the Kingdom of Heaven for righteousness.

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"Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

Does this mean we can eat pork and shellfish, and don't have to marry our brother's widow?

there goes worship of government as your master

What? I was told we worship Obama as our messiah...

Who let Anonymous into the secret liberal temple where we all pledge devotion to the owners of the military/corporate state and bow to the war mongering Israeli far Right?

What? Republican presidential candidates do that? Whodathunk?

But damn those liberals for cutting food stamps for the poor, while they legislate their loyalty to the Wall Street servants of mammon.

Instead of worrying bout how much the govt spends on food stamps, maybe the righteous thing to do would be to support polices that lower the unemployment rates and by doing so allow more Americans to become employed. Or better still, polices that encourage Americans to go into business for themselves.

It would appear that you again want to hold Christians to your standards of behavior and quote scriptures to support same, but are not willing to answer the basic question about Jesus the person which Christianity revolves around, that being:

3 1-3 One more thing, friends: Pray for us. Pray that the Master’s Word will simply take off and race through the country to a groundswell of response, just as it did among you. And pray that we’ll be rescued from these scoundrels who are trying to do us in. I’m finding that not all “believers” are believers. But the Master never lets us down. He’ll stick by you and protect you from evil.

4-5 Because of the Master, we have great confidence in you. We know you’re doing everything we told you and will continue doing it. May the Master take you by the hand and lead you along the path of God’s love and Christ’s endurance.

6-9 Our orders—backed up by the Master, Jesus—are to refuse to have anything to do with those among you who are lazy and refuse to work the way we taught you. Don’t permit them to freeload on the rest. We showed you how to pull your weight when we were with you, so get on with it. We didn’t sit around on our hands expecting others to take care of us. In fact, we worked our fingers to the bone, up half the night moonlighting so you wouldn’t be burdened with taking care of us. And it wasn’t because we didn’t have a right to your support; we did. We simply wanted to provide an example of diligence, hoping it would prove contagious.

10-13 Don’t you remember the rule we had when we lived with you? “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.”

Christians are being barbarically tortured by ISIS in their own churches to force them to convert to Islam.

Religious persecution watchdog Christian Freedom International reports those who defy the militants have had limbs cut off or have been crucified -even children.

“ISIS has a stated goal to wipe out Christianity,” Jay Sekulow, of the American Center for Law and Justice told the Jerusalem Post.

“This is why they are crucifying Christians — which includes children — destroying churches and selling artifacts. The reality is, this group will stop at practically nothing to raise funds for its terrorist mission.”

Other than Bush's bogus war of aggression, I don't know why you don't love Bush, Dave. He governed domestically just like a progressive with his governmental spending policies. Obama criticized him for it and then came in and doubled down on the spending. Bush was just being Obama-lite.

Wouldn't that be the other way around? Bush expanded the federal government MORE than Obama has. TSA, Homeland Security, etc.

Bush's tax policies were certainly not progressive. Spoiled rich brats can still inherit $5 million and not pay a dime in taxes for their enormous boost in free wealth. They had to redefine it as a "Death tax" because the more truthful "Inheritance Tax" sounds too elitist and not frightening enough.

Bush also put corporate foxes in the regulatory hen house, too. Not a bit progressive.

Bush took good care of his fellows of the neo-aristocratic class. Hard to love a guy like that.

But as his brother said, he "kept us safe" though, didn't he?

Yeah, well, not counting 9-11 of course. That was probably Obama's fault anyway, for being in cahoots with Saddam, Iran, ISIS and al-Qaeda. ;-)

Don't you miss the days when Chris Matthews said, "We're all neo-cons now!" after he got all excited seeing Bush's premature "Mission Accomplished" stunt?

Oh, I agree that Bush expanded the federal government by huge margins. Whether it was actually more than Obama, I don't know or care. It should not have happened under either of them frankly.

As for the aptly named death tax, it taxes family farms and businesses that are passed down to the next generation. Under the hate-the-rich tax scheme, many sons and daughters must sell off the land of the family farm or close the family business simply to pay the death tax on things that have already been taxed. It destroys wealth and jobs, just so we can punish those "evil rich bastards" that we all hate.

I never have figured out how hating and envying anyone else's success is going to help me improve. I guess it doesn't matter though, because it feels so good to punish them, since we all know that the only way anybody gets rich these days is by being corrupt and screwing the poor. Just because that is how George Soros and other progressives do it, doesn't mean that everyone makes wealth that way, Dave.

Yes, there are some spoiled brats that inherit large sums of money, but do you know what? It is not the damned government's money!!!

The bottom 50% of wage earners in this nation pay nearly nothing of the federal tax burden, while the top 5% of earners pay nearly 2/3 rds of the federal income taxes. Listening to you and the progressives in this country, it still is not enough. I guess until the top 5% pay 100% of the burden, you won't be happy. Those damned evil rich people.

I have yet to ever have a poor man offer me a job, but that doesn't stop our stupid ass government from creating millions more poor people under "enlightened" socialist policies.

Good God. We insist on being able to kill our unborn, marry whomever/whatever we choose, give away the farm in suicidal agreements with our enemies, and then insist it is all the conservatives' fault that the world is going to hell.

We are reaping what we have sown. And it is going to very soon get significantly worse. I wonder how Obama, the media, and the rest of the progressives will spin that to be conservatives' fault too?

Teh Plane!, yeah, because killing the unborn child will cure all of the evil done to the poor 14 year old. Because two evils make a good, I suppose.

How about we stop giving terrorist regimes everything they ask for in asinine agreements? It is the militant Islamists that are actually crucifying Christians, throwing gays off the top of tall buildings, and raping young boys and girls. And yet there are foolish liberals that think the only alternative is this dangerous "agreement" or going to war with Iran. In their minds it's not possible to have any other alternatives.

How about we punish those that rape 14 year old's with extreme judicial prejudice?

No, instead we have Planned Parenthood supporters "shouting out about their abortion" in triumph.

I am deeply saddened by the evil we now proclaim as good in this nation.

TP,Parroting Republican "Death tax" myths only paints you as an uninformed partisan. More accurately, the estate tax is now the "Paris Hilton Tax Cut" that perpetuates an aristocratic class shunned by the founders.

many sons and daughters must sell off the land of the family farm or close the family business simply to pay the death tax

How many of America’s 2.2 million farms have been sold to pay estate taxes? None.

For those who don't care to follow the link, here are a few more facts:==Only the wealthiest estates pay the tax because it is levied only on the portion of an estate’s value that exceeds a specified exemption level — $5.43 million per person (effectively $10.86 million per married couple) in 2015.

Today, 99.8 percent of estates owe no estate tax at all, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. Only the estates of the wealthiest 0.2 percent of Americans — roughly 2 out of every 1,000 people who die — owe any estate tax. This is because of the tax’s high exemption amount, which has jumped from $650,000 per person in 2001 to $5.43 million per person in 2015.

Only roughly 20 small business and small farm estates nationwide owed any estate tax in 2013, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. TPC’s analysis defined a small-business or small farm estate as one with more than half its value in a farm or business and with the farm or business assets valued at less than $5 million. Furthermore, TPC estimates those roughly 20 estates owed just 4.9 percent of their value in tax, on average.

These findings are consistent with a 2005 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study finding that of the few farm and family business estates that would owe any estate tax under the rules scheduled for 2009, the overwhelming majority would have sufficient liquid assets (such as bank accounts, stocks, bonds, and insurance) in the estate to pay the tax without having to touch the farm or business. The current estate tax rules are even more generous.==

Not that facts can replace your partisan beliefs and dogma.

You just can't help yourself, can you? More "hate the rich" BS for wanting the same rates they paid under Reagan.

For God's sake even Trump says the rich should go back to paying more taxes. He must really hate himself.

Taxing the rich is not hate. Falsely accusing and blaming those who support it is.

Get a grip on reality and let go of your hate. Yes, accusing me of hating the rich and "supporting the mullahs" is a self-righteous and defensive hate to demonize dissent from your far Right ideology.

You may not see your hate, but when you whine about conservatives being blamed you may have an inkling of the demonizing liberals have withstood for decades.

I know this will not register with your dogma, but I have close friends who are millionaires.

I am deeply saddened by the evil we now proclaim as good in this nation

Since not one person says abortion is good, I'll assume torture and war of aggression have been proclaimed as good. Dick Cheney is honest, good and wise to some too.

So far we've see zero alternatives with Iran, apart from war, from the far Right.

Still waiting.

Scientists and the IAEA seem to think it's a sound deal. But what do they know? Their problem is they don't know Obama is a Muslim who hates America and supports the mullahs. War mongers, neocons, Republicans and Rush ALL know more than they do. Amirite?

I believe the preponderance of progressives believe that abortion is indeed a good thing. They believe that to rid the world of the unwanted pregnancies and unwanted children that result from them is a good thing, and that to allow women the option of safety-net birth-control is a good thing. There's no other reason to assign Orwellian labels like "women's health care" or "reproductive rights" or the myriad of other double-speak unless one believes (or wants to believe) it is a good thing.

Or else, the person understands that it is indeed a bad thing, yet doesn't care because the alternatives interfere with their own moral choices that necessitate the bad thing. So, linguistic deception is a useful vehicle to clean up the bad thing for public consumption. More likely...

Dave, since I already explained how the top 5% of wage earners pay 64% of the federal tax burden and the bottom 50% pay nearly 0%, can you please tell me how much more the rich should pay for it to be their fair share?

As for the IAEA, the fact that they have to make secret side deals that supposedly John Kerry and especially congress were not privy to the details thereof, doesn't that raise any concern for you.

Further, there are lots of scientists that oppose this deal, just as there are over 200 flag officers that oppose it compared to the 36 you cited as supporting it. Israel and the Arab world both oppose it vehemently. They don't ever agree on anything. But Obama says it is the only way to prevent war, so have another swig of Kool Aid.

I don't know of any Republicans that are calling for war with Iran. We could have kept these crippling sanctions on them that brought them to the table in the first place and played our hand from a position of strength, without going to war. The Islamic world does NOT respect mercy and attempts to "cooperate". It is a sign of weakness to them. Growing up in Indonesia, Obama should know and understand this mindset. Indeed, I suspect he does, which poses the question of why he is so adamant on negotiating this horrible deal instead of walking away from it, like he promised he would if it were bad.

Obama and his progressive supporters are so afraid of war that the don't realize that militant Islam has already been at war against us for decades. They would rather stick their heads in dark and unsanitary places and hope that things will just get better... if only the GOP would just stop pointing out the dangerous facts of the matter.

T.P. Davy knows that the top 5% of wage earners pay 64% of the federal tax burden and the bottom 50% pay nearly 0%. It doesn't matter to him he wants them to pay more so the bottom 50 increases to 55%. I've told him the same a dozen times. He will just deflect or refute or claim its corporatism that aren't paying enough. Or he will ignore.But I'll give you this, it was a nice try.

AHarley,

I agree with your comments on abortion 100%. Next you will be accused of only caring about humans in their mothers womb but not after their birth because you want to reduce welfare spending or some such nonsense.

Progressives have really become caricatures of themselves, their solutions continue to fail or there would no longer be a need for their polices. Their defense for their failures have become stale.

TP,How much should the rich pay? How about what they did under Nixon? They were doing just fine.

Still afraid of those "secret deals" that are routine with all inspection programs? Still no better alternative than war?

Israel's former ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, is on a crusade to discredit Obama and derail a possible nuclear deal with Iran -- and his new memoir contains interesting information about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's real thoughts on how to stop the Iranians getting a nuclear weapon.

Oren says Defense Minister Ehud Barak advocated a military strike to US officials more than once with the argument that "one night of strategic bombing will restore your lost prestige in the Middle East. The Iranian nightmare is a full-blown American attack," he quotes Barak as saying and adds, "But the response Barak received was silence."

Your President Netanyahu wants military action against Iran. The GOP wants whatever he wants. Their loyalty is clear. Try to tell me otherwise.

From the low information voter: “Davy knows that the top 5% of wage earners pay 64% of the federal tax burden and the bottom 50% pay nearly 0%.”

Chuckie is so wrong so often, he has no clue about what I know. Every worker pays taxes for disability, retirement and health care. The percentage of their “burden” is way higher than what the poor oppressed rich pay.

Those guys eat that crap up like cupcakes. Service to, and almost worship of, wealth and the rich is their primary operating political “value”.

Accusing and scape-goating liberals, while they kick the poor down ever more, is their holy crusade. Besides, of course, elevating zygotes’ rights over women’s rights.

Righties are confident in their judgment of liberals. The institutionalized demonizing has been in their heads for decades. They think they know our minds and motives.

They will say we hate America, that we envy and hate the rich, that we are communists, that we have no family values, that we want to “rid the world” of unwanted children.

This fuels their hate and fear of liberals. That hate has been deadly. Some of them have walked into churches to kill liberals and blacks.

Their authoritarian leaders’ endless echo chamber, repeating the propaganda 24/7 in corporate media, tells them what to think about liberals and minorities and women. Astonishingly, they will swear the very media broadcasting their dogma is “liberal media”. Yes, they do. And “Good Conservatives” listen. And “Good Conservatives” believe.

What does this tell us about them?

Their propaganda tells US what THEY think too. Don’t they even know we can hear them?

They don’t care. And they don’t care to hear us either. They already think they know what we have to say.

They have made up their minds, (as if any balanced consideration were possible). They know all they need to know about those liberals. Yes, sir.

How many more of them know all they need to know about who to hate and who to blame? How many more have determined to act out their own solutions towards liberals and minorities.

Too many have acted on their sick version of a “final solution” to the liberal problem.

I’m surprised there aren’t more acts of Right Wing Terror in our country. Since 9-11 they have attacked more Americans than Muslim terrorists have.

Yogi was born in 1925 and 1930 U.S. Census records show that Yogi’s father, Pietro, who arrived in the U.S. from northern Italy in 1909, still declared as an alien five years after Yogi was born. So did his mother, Pauline. It didn’t matter to Yogi, of course. The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteed him citizenship.

Berra died Tuesday, and here’s the Sports Illustrated headline on its obituary: “Remembering the great American life of Yankees Legend Yogi Berra.” Yogi’s certainly was a great American life. Emphasis on “American.” And it was a life made possible by the 14th Amendment.

"Still afraid of those "secret deals" that are routine with all inspection programs? Still no better alternative than war? "

The US congress should know all the details of any treaty with a foreign country:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_Clause

Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, includes the Treaty Clause, which empowers the President of the United States to propose and chiefly negotiate agreements, which must be confirmed by the Senate, between the United States and other countries, which become treaties between the United States and other countries after the advice and consent of a supermajority of the United States Senate.

Still ignorant of basics Civics Davy? Oh I forget, the Constitution is a "living document" that changes with the liberal winds.

"Chuckie is so wrong so often, he has no clue about what I know. Every worker pays taxes for disability, retirement and health care. The percentage of their “burden” is way higher than what the poor oppressed rich pay."

"Every worker pays taxes for retirement"???? What you be talkin about here Davey????

How about the growing number of people whose hours have been cut to 30 hours, so their employer does not have to provide healthcare thanks to the increased cost of that wonderful leaning forward progressive ObamaCare? These people will get free Health Care from others whose HealthCare plans have increased 30-40 percent like myself.

"I report, you decide."

LOL Davey.

Ever think of going to night school to get out of your prison of under achievement?

We see Chuckie, Just The Facts and now “Harry” are all responding as the same person again.He just can’t help himself. Republican integrity on display or multiple personality disorder. Not good either way. Maybe he’s the one off his meds. The US congress should know all the details of any treaty with a foreign country:Congressional review was demanded and granted. It’s an international agreement. It’s not a treaty. Sorry. “First of all, a treaty is something that lives beyond existing presidents. … The next president can come in and undo an executive action like this,” Bob Corker, Republican Senator. Jim Walsh, a specialist on the Iran nuclear program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the Iran deal, which commits the United States to waive or lift sanctions, does not rise to the level of a formal treaty."Treaties traditionally have involved reductions in armaments, nuclear weapons, conventional forces. They require us to take something away that we have already built or established." In this case, the United States would lift sanctions, but would not be changing its military posture."We have had all sorts of agreement that were never ratified by Congress," Walsh said.Every worker pays taxes for retirement.

It’s called Social Security, part of the FICA deducted from every paycheck. How low information can one voter be?

If the person claiming to be Chuckie/Just The Facts/Harry etc. was really concerned about low hour/wage workers getting health care he’d support universal health care. He doesn’t care. Never did. Never will.

The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog organization on Thursday slammed a news story that said Tehran will use its own inspectors to investigate a suspected Iranian nuclear weapons site.

The story, written by the Associated Press, cited a draft version of a secret side agreement that’s a part of the larger Iranian nuclear deal, saying the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had ceded the investigation of Iran’s Parchin military facility to the Islamic republic.

But Yukia Amano, director general of the IAEA, dismissed the report as “misleading,” saying he was satisfied with the access his people will receive under the deal. “Such statements,” he said of the AP report, “misrepresent the way in which we will undertake this important verification work.”

Iran has long been suspected of experimenting with high-explosive detonators at the military facility. Amano said that under the terms of the agreement with Iran, he could not disclose its details, but he stressed it provides IAEA inspectors with sufficient access to Parchin to meet the organization’s demands.

“The separate arrangements under the roadmap agreed between the IAEA and Iran in July are confidential and I have a legal obligation not to make them public—the same obligation I have for hundreds of such arrangements made with other IAEA Member States,” Amano said in a statement. “However, I can state that the arrangements are technically sound and consistent with our long-established practices. They do not compromise our safeguards standards in any way.”

We can try to reason with them, but that's impossible to do with the true believers of Limbaugh, Hannity, and other shrill voices of partisan hacks.

To the authoritarian far Right, their leaders "know" more than the IAEA. They "know" everything Obama does is intended to destroy America. Half of them "know" he's a Muslim.

Where would they be without all their misinformation, fear and anger? More liberal for one thing.

The pope endorsed the Iran deal, the UN’s environmentalist goals and what amounts to a worldwide open-borders policy on refugees — and ­offered a very specific view of how to promote development in the Third World that’s straight out of a left-wing textbook.

“The International Financial Agencies,” the pope said, “should care for the sustainable development of countries and should ensure that they are not subjected to oppressive lending systems which, far from promoting progress, subject people to mechanisms which generate greater poverty, exclusion and dependence.”

We’re told we must not view the pope’s expression of views on contemporary subjects through the lens of day-to-day issues — that we belittle him and ourselves by examining his words through an ideological filter.

Because of the awesome position he holds, and by dint of his own teachings and his life and teachings before he rose to service as the Vicar of Christ, Francis is said to be deeper and loftier than mere politics.

Sorry: When the pontiff sounds less like a theological leader and more like the 8 p.m. host on MSNBC or the editor of Mother Jones, what’s a guy to do?

Pope Francis is entirely within his rights to become the world’s foremost liberal. But, since that’s what he is, it can’t be wrong to say so.

- John PodhoretzConservative writer, editor of Commentary Magazine, former speechwriter for Reagan and Bush I

NASA tweeting that Congress should give it more money so our astronauts won’t have to ride on Russian rockets. Recovery.gov reporting overly optimistic statistics on jobs saved and created by stimulus funds. The Department of Health and Human Service Web site encouraging the public to “state your support for health care reform” during the congressional debate over Obamacare.

These are just some recent examples of the executive branch using our tax dollars to shape our opinions. Unlike the National Security Agency’s personal data collection or the overuse of “secret” stamps to withhold information, this government-produced propaganda receives almost no attention. But that doesn’t mean this “third dimension” of government information is not a problem. America becomes less democratic when the $3 trillion executive branch uses its resources to tilt the debate in its favor.

So for Chuckie the sensitive Republican, just quoting his fearless war hero Decider is "hate".

And after a "request" at that. Will Chuckie refute the quote? No. Explain it? No. Acknowledge it? No.

Poor Chuckie has such thin skin he can't tolerate a simple quote without leveling an accusation, his knee jerk far Right response. THAT is what hate looks like.

They all do it. They blame liberals all the time, but when blame is directed at a Republican, it's time to respond with hate. Like bullies and spoiled brats who get mad when they can't make up their own rules.

Chuckie can't understand that liberals welcome his hatred, and wear his accusations with pride, knowing he's unable to reason and discuss intelligently.

No wonder Republicans are such immature reactionaries who can't play well with others. They whine and throw tantrums if they can't have their way. They are too immature and fanatic to understand compromise has always been the American way of governing.

Now they want to shut down the entire government at a cost of billions of dollars, just to throw a tantrum at not having the power to dictate over our country.

They hate democracy that much. Almost as much as they hate liberals.

Watch this one:

Chuckie, why are you afraid of "secret deals" that let Iran "self-inspect"?

Chuckie at least admits his fear. That's a step toward honesty, of all things.

Maybe admitting his anger and hate will be next. Obviously his trust is reserved only for his fellow true believers, war-mongering authoritarian leaders like Bush and Cheney, and his mentors Limbaugh, Savage and Hannity.

Netanyahu has urged military action against Iran. Chuckie's cult cannot disagree with their chosen president. It's much easier than gathering facts and employing reason.

But how can one trust those he hates? He sees an international agreement as only "Obama selling out to Iran". This is where the hate and anger come in.

Informed people know this international agreement is not about trust. Unlike "self inspection" and "Obama's selling out to Iran", and other fear mongering inaccuracies, IAEA inspections and conditions for non-compliance are in the deal.

He isn't interested in learning about it. Ignorance will suffice. All he needs to know is Obama is for it, therefore it is bad. Simple isn't it? It's another example of how the authoritarian far Right holds beliefs over facts.

Liberals must be attacked and accused. The accusers' hate is projected unto those who dissent from his belief system. And of course, failing to respect Republicans, or even simply quoting one, is seen as "hate".

“See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.” George W. Bush

You see, only Obama can be blamed for wanting to shape opinions. Because he's an evil Muslim and all, amirite?

"Right", answers 44% of Republican voters.

No explanation is required for true believers. The catapulted propaganda has been embraced as truth.

Chuckie makes a perfect case study in the far Right authoritarian personality. He can't help himself. It's how his brain is wired. How can I hate that? It's like hating a snake for being a snake.

Ah, Chuckie invokes the beliefs of uninformed and frightened Americans as support for his beleifs. The same ones who believed Saddam was an ally of al-Qaeda and somehow involved with 9-11.

But it never was about trust was it?

Chuckie needs to frame the issue in fear and distrust.

Americans have proven how easily they succumb to fear-mongering propaganda. Bush and Cheney certainly catapulted it well.

Now Chuckie is repeating his dogma again. We already know he doesn’t trust Obama and Iran. He only trusts Republicans and other far Right authoritarians. This has been established.

Fear is not a bad thing – for Dick Cheney.

“It’s absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we’ll get hit again and we’ll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States”.

Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to blame. Blame leads to hate. All of these lead to far Right authoritarians.

Fear of real and imminent danger is good. Fear of the hypothetical and abstract is not healthy. Fear of the unknown is often manipulated. It is debilitating as well as disorienting. Fear of dissent from one’s beliefs is unending. See Chuckie's reaction to facts and reason. He needs to call it "hate". The fact is, HE hates being questioned. He hates being exposed as a fanatic ideological true believer. He must therefore project that hate outwards.

Fear has been induced, fueled, and exploited countless times, most often by authoritarian personalities throughout history, with very destructive consequences.

From fear of the “Commie dominos” last century that killed 50,000 Americans needlessly in Vietnam, to fear of Saddam in cahoots with al-Qaeda, fear of Condi’s “Mushroom cloud”, and fear of alleged “nukular” aluminum tubes even, that led to the more recent waste of hundreds of thousands more lives.

And of course, there’s the fear of the Black Man, and fear of “socialism”, perennial favorites of American fear-mongering authoritarians.

Now we have the Neocon/Netanyahu cultivated fear of a nuclear reduction treaty for Iran. They don’t fear war. They seek it and profit from it.

Why is a hypothetical war more frightening than the actual pushing for real war?

I’ll tell you. Authoritarians are “never wrong” and by definition, their war is always a “good war”.

Davy, again you put words into the mouths of those whom you disagree with, it is you who frames the discussion only from you point of view. Examples of this are found through out your posts.Prove me wrong.